SWWD Campus Greening

The Campus Greening Program is a collaboration between the School District and Watershed District using an ecosystem approach to addressing stormwater quality by expanding natural areas on campuses in lieu of installing more conventional treatment practices like ponds and infiltration basins. Where possible, the Districts are involving students and staff, as well as city and state agencies to help expand natural areas on campuses and connect these to the larger regional landscapes. Native Plants and their natural communities develop deep roots, build soils and infiltrate stormwater where the rain falls right on campus.

The Campus Greening program brings nature right to campus and in doing so improves water quality, provides habitat, and offers endless learning opportunities for students to engage with nature right at home.

Minnesota’s mix of wild plant species contain a wide range of beautiful flowers and attractive grasses, trees and shrubs. Native plants have a mix of very showy and more subdued flowers, some of which have long bloom periods, and others very short.  By bringing back a range of native plants, other species that rely on these plants can find a home right on the campuses. Restoration of these natural ecosystems, especially close to home, offers a way for students to study nature close up, watching seasonal changes and observing all of the richness of natural world interactions.

Because Minnesota, and Washington County specifically sit in a transition zone between Prairie and Forest Biomes, our landscape contained a rich mosaic of landscapes. Native plant communities were (and are) a mix of forested to open landscapes with a wide range of characteristics based on soils, moisture, slopes, aspect and a multitude of other factors.

Site Setting: Past and Present

Prior to the arrival of Euro-American settlers, Minnesota’s landscape was a rich mosaic of native plant communities.  Each community type supported a vast range of plants and animals adapted to the particular characteristics of its own particular site.  Minnesota’s native landscape was a mix of coniferous forests to the north/northeast, prairies to the west and deciduous forests in the southeast.  In the transition zone between forest and prairie where the District is located today, oak savanna was dominant. This plant community and similar community types (Oak Woodlands, Barrens and Prairie) contained a mix of species adapted to open landscapes as well as forests.  

Oak Savanna and Prairie have been largely replaced by farms and development in Minnesota. In fact, according to the MN DNR, only 2% of the original prairie and 1% of Oak Savanna remain in Minnesota. Restoring a variety of natural plant community types that would have been present in Minnesota a century ago provides valuable habitat for the preservation of plants and animals that once roamed the state. This type of restoration is especially valuable on multi-acre sites where turf provides at best, marginal wildlife habitat. These projects also provide direct access for young folks to learn about the varied ecology of Minnesota right on campus.

Within each of these large-scale landscapes, a mix of plant communities existed. Differences in plant communities was determined by a combination of factors including soils, topography, slope aspect, soil moisture, surface water, micro-climate and frequency of disturbance (fire, grazing, etc...). Soils and topography have been substantially altered to build the cultural landscapes where we live and learn. Reconstructing native plant communities on a fully altered site provides an opportunity to rehabilitate and reintroduce lost ecosystem values and function.

Restoring a variety of native plant communities and plant species offers a wide range of ecosystem benefits. These include, but are not limited to:

·      Food for pollinating insects

·      Habitat for insects, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals

·      Provides greater stormwater infiltration and transpiration due to deep roots and roughness of surface vegetation. Reduces stormwater volumes and captures nutrients that cause negative downstream effects to local streams and lakes.

·      Rebuilding structure and biological diversity within soils

·      Offer a wide range of opportunities for students to have hands-on learning by wandering the restored habitats, gathering real world scientific knowledge, comfortability with the outdoors and close up appreciation for the beauty of the Minnesota landscape.

The hands-on learning provided by restoration campuses around the district offers a way for students to see the connections between their daily routines and those of the planet that they inhabit. The program offers a way for students to engage in the outdoors, right at home, and year round.

Outdoor Classrooms (like the Jens Jensen Council Ring to the right) built directly into the restored landscape make it possible to teach and learn through direct observation of the emerging natural plant communities. The Campus Greening spaces are designed to accommodate a full classroom with ADA accessibility built into the plan. These outdoor spaces are each intended to offer students and staff the ability to focus on learning through simple structures focused on a central space but fully integrated into the developing prairie plantings. The classrooms used a combination of hardscape materials from concrete to local stone.  These materials also provide learning tools for exploration of geology and building.  New concrete will be required to demonstrate the use of materials that reduce carbon impacts through the use of emerging material specifications.  Local stone will come from local quarries and include a mix of sedimentary stone and glacially derived boulders from Washington County.

The outdoor classrooms provide a range of possibilities for learning. Learning in these outdoor settings make possible explorations in art, writing, outdoor exploration and a range of scientific explorations from botany, water sciences, entomology, biology. The possibilities are endless right at home.

What to Expect: Ecological Restoration, A Slow and Methodical Process

Just as removing the natural functioning ecosystems in Minnesota took years, restoring a resilient and diverse mix of ecological plant communities on Campuses throughout the District is a process that will take time to reestablish. The first step in the process is to remove or reduce those plants that do not fit within the goal of creating a mix of species to support the local native ecosystem and create the conditions for plantings that become self-sustaining and environmentally beneficial.

Turf to Savanna: This conversion requires first, the removal of the turf that is largely dominated by non-native Kentucky Bluegrass (not even native to Kentucky), then seed to a mix of mixed height grasses and flowers. This process requires intensive first year management of the existing turf prior to seeding. Second and third year management is usually comprised of mowing as new weeds pop up, and native seedlings establish. The goal is to remove weed seeds before the plants produce them, and give the seeded native plants sufficient advantage to grow dominant. Unfortunately, this second year of establishment is often dominated by unwanted annual weeds. Following the third year, burning a prairie every 3-5 years typically maintains a healthy and diverse mix of native plant species, supporting a range of animals adapted to this plant community. Periodic burns help keep weeds and woody species in check. Scattered trees will be planted throughout the prairie areas to add vertical structure. Plants will be those typical of oak savannas.

Prairie Maintenance and Enhancement: Valley Crossing is fortunate to have a very good quality existing prairie of more than seven acres within the campus grounds. This prairie hosts a range of short and tall grass, and dozens of native flowers the provide food and shelter for pollinators and other species. Management within this prairie will rely mostly on periodic prescribed burns to remove thatch and reset the native plant community. Spot spraying with herbicides will reduce the prevalence of aggressive and invasive species and interseeding will enhance the diversity of flowering plants.

Woodland Restoration: Crestview Elementary School is blessed with more than seven acres of neglected woodland that has largely been forgotten through the years. These woods were largely dominated by buckthorn and non-native honeysuckles throughout the understory, and early successional trees in the canopy.  The woodland provides an opportunity to bring back a native community dominated by native, long-lived trees and shrubs along with a mix of shade and part sun tolerant ground layer plants.   This too is a slow restoration process requiring a full two years of invasive species removal before bringing back a diverse mix of native plants.

Restoration Tools

There are many tools in the restoration toolkit to help convert the landscape back to a healthy and functioning ecosystem. Some are quite dramatic while others are simply tools to be used sparingly. Some of the tools are listed here:

Prescribed Fire: Many natural plant communities rely on fire as a reset, removing thatch from previous year’s growth. After a burn, watch as prairie and savanna plantings sprout back to life from their extensive underground root systems.

Weeding: Particularly as native species reestablish, hand pulling of weeds can be a great method of removing some persistent pesky plants.  This generally works best with weed species that have root systems that can be removed along with the plant.

Mulching: Mulching protects new plantings by reducing weed growth and holding moisture in the soil while plantings establish.  Woodchip mulch will also provide path surfaces to direct foot traffic through the restored woods and prairies.

Grazing Goats: Goats are being used to munch the persistent weeds in wooded areas. Multiple years of grazing, combined with mowing has been very effective at weakening species like common buckthorn, honeysuckles and garlic mustard.

Canopy Thinning: Removing overgrown trees, especially invasive (Siberian Elm) and diseased trees (Green Ash) provides an opportunity to reintroduce long-lived native species of the target restoration communities (Oak Woodland and Savanna). Removal offers ground layer plants more access to light for germination and growth.

Prairie Mowing: Establishing prairies are notoriously weedy for the first couple years, and mowing of annual plants before they go to seed is a great way to favor the long lived perennials that will start to shine in the second and third year restoration.

Forestry Mowing: Mowing a woodland that is completely dominated by common buckthorn and other invasive plant species is a cost effective way to knock back this invasive species much more quickly than hand cutting. Multiple mowings is effective at reducing resprouts.

Canopy Thinning: Removing overgrown trees, especially invasive (Siberian Elm) and diseased trees (Green Ash) provides an opportunity to reintroduce long-lived native species of the target restoration communities (Oak Woodland and Savanna). Removal offers ground layer plants more access to light for germination and growth.

Herbicide: Using each of the previous techniques reduces the need to for herbicides in restoration projects, but restorations still often rely on the use of herbicides in targeted ways. The Campus Greening project requires that contractors identify methods to reduce to the greatest extent, the use of herbicides while establishing natural communities.

Seeding: Prairie seeding is an art developed over many decades and each project presents challenges that are never expected.  The Campus Greening restorations are each being seeded with species mixes that provide a range of aesthetic and ecological values.

Planting: Plantings in gardens near classrooms or in visible locations will offer up closeup views for students to study the structure and beauty of native plantings.  

Lake Middle School Plan

Middleton Elementary School Plan

Outdoor Classroom at Lake Middle School

Planting Day at Middleton Elementary School Outdoor Classroom, Fall 2020

Lake Middle School Prairie, Fall 2020

Prairie Enhancement: This plan is using a variety of techniques to enhance the existing prairie along the northern and eastern borders of the campus. Controlled burns in spring or fall benefit the prairie by helping to reduce weed species, clear away thatch and offer a more diverse mix of species to take advantage of increased light. The existing prairie contains a wide range of plant species native to Minnesota’s prairies and offers abundant habitat for pollinators and habitat for a wide range of other species.

Turf to Savanna Conversion: Large areas of turf on the Valley Crossing Campus are unused by students, require frequent maintenance inputs (mowing, watering, fertilizers, herbicides, etc...) and provide little habitat or stormwater benefit. Conversion of these areas to native savanna will provide a range of ecosystem improvement and by extension, offers great hands-on learning opportunities for students.

Outdoor Classroom: An outdoor classroom will be installed in summer, 2021 immediately adjacent to the southeast corner of the school building. This amphitheater type space has been designed to use rough, natural stone benches and a stabilized granite path to provide accessibility for all users. The outdoor classroom will be nestled into the surrounding restored savanna plantings, offering students and teachers the opportunity to engage in hands on environmental learning right outside the classroom door.

Prairie Burn, Spring 2020

Turf to Savanna and Turf to Infiltration Conversion: Large areas of turf on the Crestview Campus provide minimal value for students, require frequent maintenance (mowing, watering, fertilizers, etc...) and provide little habitat or stormwater benefit. Restoring these areas to natural communities provides a range of ecosystem services and by extention, offers hands-on learning opportunities for students. 

Campus Outdoor Laboratory: The north end of the Crestview campus contains about 7.5 acres of degraded woodland and grassland overgrown by shrubs. Topography of this area was entirely altered when the campuses were built in the 1960s and vegetation is a mix of planted conifers and adventitious deciduous trees and shrubs. The area has great potential for the restoration of a variety of native plant communities. Prairie and savanna are planned on the top of slopes where soils are well drained and runoff is high. Dry woodland is appropriate on mid-level and upper slopes as well as acting as a buffer on north property boundary. Lower areas offer the opportunity to restore lowland hardwood and shady sedge meadows. A restoration of this type requires multiple years of implementation using a variety of techniques that may include cutting and treating of woody species, controlled burns, grazing by goats, tree planting and large scale seeding. 

Students Seeding Woodlands, Winter, 2021

Emerging Seeded Grasses in Spring, 2021

Goats arrive at Crestview and dive right into the honeysuckle patch!

Grey Cloud Outdoor Classroom Site Design